I was considering buying a new SATA harddrive. Right now I'm using 2xIDE drives, old stuff which I feel just might be breaking down any day if im unlucky.

Now the question is, does anyone know the power usage of a SATA-drive compared to old IDE drives? I'm planning to replace both my old IDE drives, can I count on that I will have more power available in the box after? Reason I ask is my box could really use an extra cooling fan, but I don't dare risc it atm cus I'm afraid to overload the GPU.

// Andreas

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I dare say the difference between SATA and PATA is negligible, the power hunger components such as the spindle and arm are still present only the electronics change. As for adding an extra fan.... I think your'l get away with it there only what 2-3W at most? Besides the benefits of having cooler components should balance itself out against the extra load.

Having voices in your head is normal. Listening to them, common. Arguing, acceptable. However, when you lose the argument, you're in trouble.

there are various factors to consider.
it depends on spindle speed and if the sata drives have the power saving features enable and which ones.
sata drives can spin down and spin up and power usage can go up and down depending on how fast the drive does so.
sata drives are usually more responsive to system power management features such as S1 and S3 states.

Alright well, considering the fact that I'll be replacing 2 IDE drives with 1 SATA, that *should* make it a profit though right? I mean the drives are old, probably not the most effective compared to todays standards.

It's generally a "don't care" for the typical home user with one to three drives.

Look at the specifications for the drives. Unfortunately major manufacturers decreasingly break down Amps or Watts by power rail...they just provide a total. But the label on the drive itself should break it down by power rail.

The specs will tell you exactly how much the maximum current and/or power requirements are in total or for each voltage rail...which is what you're worried about. Depending on what the drive is doing it may consume less power...as little as ~15% of the maximum.

It also depends on "family" of drive within a manufacturer. E.G. Western Digital has a "green" family that consumes maximum total power ~5Watts, half the maximum total power of WD's Caviar Black drives.

You can either compare the amps or the watts for each voltage individually, or add the WATTS for a total Watts for a given drive. You don't add Amps from different voltage rails.

For example, for the +12V rail one might see 0.8A at +12V. That = 0.8Ax12V=9.6Watts ~10Watts on that +12V rail.

For drives that use more than one power rail (notebook drives generally use +5V only)

0.8A x 12V =9.6W at +12V rail
0.4A x 5V = 2.0W at +5V rail

= 9.6W + 2.0W = 11.6Watts TOTAL for that single drive.

Here's an example of the specs from a Samsung SATA drive. Note that "spin-up" is provided in Amps...the spindle in 3.5" drives that have +12V power is usually powered by the +12V rail. This would suggest an estimate of the instantaneous maximum power on the +12V rail for this drive is 2.0A x +12V ~ 24Watts. Take off an roughly estimated 15% for +5V power needs, and that makes about 20Watts maximum on the +12V rail. But that lasts only for a very short time as the drive spins-up from 0 to 7200 RPMs.